Little Tanks

Tiny tanks guard my bookcase...

 Char B1 bis, with Dead Six and Tom Kratman's "Countdown" books in the background.

PzKpfw NbFz V, whose brief combat experience is chronicled in this book.
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Silly Seasons Get Closer Together

The worst part about getting older is that the election seasons get closer and closer together.

When we elected Bush the Elder back in '88, I hadn’t had to deal with the silliness of electoral politics since ‘way back when I was in high school. Now it feels like we just did this crap four years ago.
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A distinctive style...

I was googling around for some info on the UTS-15 and stumbled across this minireview.

My eyes first lit on the lead photo and I thought "Man, somebody really wants to be Oleg Volk, They're mimicking his style almost perfectly."

And then I read the byline.

Well, duh. That would explain the resemblance.
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QotD: Gimme That Old-Time Religion Edition...

From a You-Should-Go-RTWT post at Weaponsman:

"The conventional wisdom on the left and in the press (but we repeat ourselves) that terrorists are made by poverty and oppression is, frankly, silly. Like the communist terrorists of the 1970s, the mohammedan terrorists of today are a product of wealthy-kid ennui and self-loathing. Well-known terrorist cases range from solidly middle-class (Tsarnaevs) to professional class (Ayman al-Zawahiri) to stankin’ wealthy (bin Laden); it is rare to find one without some university education."

No lions or tigers, but they do got some bears.

My adopted home state of Indiana spotted a bear last month, and it made the papers, since it was the first time anybody had seen one here in more than a hundred years. No doubt the state's internet firearms forum has broken out in a spate of bearthread*, as arguments are waged over which magnum revolver is now a justified purchase.

Meanwhile, my old stomping grounds in Knoxville have apparently become overrun with the things. Expanding suburbs combined with being butted up against one of the largest reservoirs of black bear population east of the Mississippi creates an ideal environment for headlines like this...

Three black bears hit by cars in East Tennessee in 24 hours

...and news blurbs like this...

Authorities have captured and killed a black bear that entered a West Knoxville woman's home last week, a Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency official said today.

The bear was caught after it was accidentally struck by a Knoxville Police Department car Saturday night in the Mechanicsville neighborhood, about two miles from the home it allegedly broke into last week.

"We have every reason to believe it was the bear that entered the home," TWRA supervisor Brian Ripley said.

(The Mechanicsville neighborhood, by the way, is not out in the sticks: it's right up against downtown K-town.)

The winner of recent Knoxville bear stories has to be this one, though:

Black bear scales 10-foot fence to visit Knoxville Zoo

*Bearthread: Interminable discussion threads on internet gun fora devoted to rationalizing purchase of exotic firearms solutions to fantastically unlikely problems. The Taurus Judge is the concrete, physical world manifestation of too much bearthread.

Blah.

Slow Saturday morning.

The Tour de France is on the televisor in the next room. I need to get on my bike and go for a ride.

Can't yet, though, because I'm waiting on the phone repairman who was supposed to be here between 0800 and 1100. He's a replacement for the guy that was supposed to be here yesterday, but never showed.

I need to go ride my bike in the worst way. Between the fact that it was piss-pouring rain on Thursday and I had to wait for the phone guy all day yesterday, I haven't ridden since Wednesday. I feel sluggish. I want to pedal into Broad Ripple proper and maybe get some sushi for lunch, then maybe take the Canal Towpath south to 56th or so.

I am so burned out on internet gun derp right now that it's not even funny. I just need to take a big step back from talking about guns on the internet. Derpers gonna derp, and you can't fix it. "No, buddy, your carry rotation is great. Those are all fantastic guns. No, no, you're holding it fine. Just keep doing that. Spreading the holes out like that does increase your chances of hitting a vital spot, sure."
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The Gadget is Go.

You can order yours right here.

Glock 19 with Gadget, Lightguard, and Dark Star Gear IWB holster.

"In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour..."

A window seat on the Enterprise (NCC-1701, not CVN-65 or OV-101.)

Via Insty.
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Elsewhere...

...someone stated that Open Carry events were damaged by "agent provocateur and how one or two deliberately placed idiots can turn an OC event into the hallmark of bad press for gun carriers."

This particular application of the No True Scotsman fallacy never fails to amaze me.

I replied:

"What the **** is the fascination with "False Flags"? Why can my side not own our own ****ing idiots? Some dude in skinhead drag and shouting sedition while carrying a derped-out WASR at the Open Carry March? Oh, he must be a "deliberately placed" "agent provocateur". No, numbnuts, he's your fellow traveller. Own him. Counsel his ass. Tell him to stop stinking up your event or leave. Police up your own $#!+, people, or it will get policed up for you."

I have no particular beef with open carry. I'm beginning to have a beef with Open Carry.

I carry a gun. Usually there's a shirt over it because I don't feel like hearing about every Cletus's favorite holler points in the course of my daily peregrinations. Sometimes, for reasons of comfort or due to occult legal circumstances, there is not a shirt over it.

I'm not a "CCWer", I'm not an "OCer". I'm not in your Jets or your Sharks. I'm not a Sheepdog. My gun has less emotional freight or symbolic significance to me than my watch and only slightly more than my shoes. It's a thing I carry around so that, should the necessity of fool-shooting be forced upon me, I will have something with which to shoot said fools.

I have no real beef with folks getting together on the courthouse lawn to do some Second Amendment cosplay. It's not my cup of tea, but neither is dressing up like Doctor Who characters or acting out favorite scenes from Anne Rice's kinkier, non-vampire books. If that floats your boat, knock yourself out.

But if, when you're down there waving signs and Gadsden flags and getting your militia on, you notice one of your group is acting like a complete douchefaced weasel and crapping in everybody's punchbowl, don't just have a sudden flareup of Social Anxiety Disorder and scrunch your shoulders and pretend he's a "False Flag Agent Provocateur Deliberately Placed". He's not. And you need to go set him straight, Commander Riker, or he's going to steer your Enterprise right into the Death Star.
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Video Review...

Found here.
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Gratuitous Gun Pr0n #129...

Sorry for the dearth of free ice cream today. I had an excursion downtown, plus I was writing stuff elsewhere...

Here, the internet likes gun pictures, right?

The rare threaded-barrel, 12-round-mag version of the M&P22 CA.

Remington Golden Bullet

Numbered magazines know you're keeping an eye on them and are less likely to act up. #SympatheticMagic

A little perspective...

@instapundit The America I grew up in had wage and price controls and it was illegal to own gold coins.

— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) July 9, 2015

While the internet thrives on "OMG the end of the world! This is as bad as it's ever been!" a little perspective is sometimes in order.

Things have been much worse in this country on just about any front you could think of: Ferguson was not Watts, ISIS is not Nazi Germany, and the arguments with your Wingnut/Pinko cousin on Facebook are not the Sunken Road at Antietam.

Get out of the bunker for a bit. Do something fun today.

Three-quarters there...

Went out to MCF&G to shoot in the piss-pouring rain today. Put a hundred more rounds of that WPA Polyformance through the P320.

On round number ninety-five of the day (#1495 of the test) there was another failure to ignite. The primer fired normally when reloaded back into the P320's magazine for a second try.

It was a well-dimpled primer that should have gone off. Only a hundred more rounds left of this particular lot number, although I'm hearing other tales of woe on Facebook from people using Wolf primers both as components and in factory ammo. This is from hammer-fired guns as well as striker-fired ones. We shall see what we shall see.

Three-quarters of the way to its cleaning and lubing: 1500 down, 500 to go.
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Logos...

Shades of the NASCAR-15...

MS-2 Sling

Magpul SGA shotgun stock

Magpul forward sling attachment point

The rear sling attachment point

I could live without the logos on everything, but if everyone from Saigon to Shanghai is making unlicensed copies of your stuff, every little bit helps, I guess.
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Incidentally...

Happy Birthday, Robert A. Heinlein! Thank you for all the wonderful stories.
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Gratuitous Gun Pr0n #128...

Sig P320 grip texture

不知彼，不知己，每戰必殆

I keep getting told what "The Liberal Media" is ignoring and what "The Liberal Media" is talking about by people whose only knowledge of "The Liberal Media" comes from what Rush Limbaugh tells them.

Dudes, it's not like they broadcast in code. You can go find out for yourself.
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The News From Nerf World

The AP story reads:

"The mother of a man who tried to launch a firework off the top of his head for July Fourth and was killed instantly said Monday she's advocating for stricter controls about who can use the explosives.

Devon Staples, 22, and his friends had been drinking and setting off fireworks Saturday night in a backyard in Staples' eastern Maine hometown, Calais, when the accident happened with a reloadable fireworks mortar tube, police have said."

Did you catch the sleight-of hand, there? The dude put the mortar on his head, lit it, and "the accident happened". What accident? The lighter worked, the mortar worked, it was sitting right where he wanted it. Every thing about the whole affair was as on purpose as it gets. Dude killed himself as surely as if he'd stepped in front of a train or suck-started a twelve gauge.

Lady, I'm sorry your kid was an idiot and paid for his idiocy with his life, but just because your kid thought he could breathe water is no reason to make the other kids get out of the pool. Normally I would not speak so to a grieving parent, but you are trying to use the force of law to inflict your grief on everybody else, and that is most uncool.
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Gratuitous Gun Pr0n #127...

Remington 870 with Mesa Tactical sidesaddle and Surefire forend Weaponlight

It was a very relaxing day at the range. Although keeping the gun fed through the ejection port from the sidesaddle is a lot more perishable a skill than you'd think it is. This time last year I could have done it blindfolded at a jog, now I'm back to fumbling after taking the winter and spring off from gauge practice. I need to get some full weight proving rounds for practice.
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...and 1400.

 

Another one hundred rounds through the Sig P320 today. Fifty rounds of 115gr FMJ from WPA Polyformance and fifty of Federal's 115gr "Range, Target, Practice" RTP9115 FMJ.

The 23rd round of the day (#1323 through the gun) produced a click rather than a bang. At first I thought I'd not been keeping track of the rounds and had prevented the slide from locking back with my thumb, but yanking the slide to the rear resulted in an unfired round popping out of the ejection port.

The primer was pretty well dimpled; that primer should have popped, and did in fact pop when I dropped it in the spare M&P 9 FS I had along. Below is the box flap showing what I believe to be the lot number in question. Remember that a previous round from this lot (round #903 of the test) also had a dud primer. You may want to check your ammo to see if you have this lot number, because two defective primers in 250 rounds fired is pretty suspect.

There were no other malfunctions of any type to report, not even any of the kind where I put my thumb in the wrong place and keep the slide from locking back. This is now fourteen hundred rounds through the gun; six hundred rounds to go before dirty gun pics are taken and cleaning and lubrication occurs.
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